Second Life Banned Down Under

Australia was originally a continent-sized prison colony for the British Empire, so you'd think the residents Down Under wouldn't be so uptight about video games. But they are uptight. Uptight enough to apparently ban Massively Multiplayer Genitalia Simulator*Second Life from the entire nation.

The Australian Minister for Censorship supposedly confirmed that Second Life and other basically un-rateable titles (Downloadable games, flash-based web games, and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet Australia's MA 15+ standard) will not be playable in the country.

If this is true, it basically lowers all video game discourse to what the Minister for Censorship says is appropriate.. but whether Second Life is actually banned depends on which web source you believe. The Inquistr reports that the ban is "confirmed," where Second Life-centric blog New World Notes says that whether the ban applies to Second Life or not remains undetermined.The blog points out: "it's likely there are several layers of parliamentary, bureaucratic, and technical implementation before any of this impacts Australian access to Second Life (if it ever does.)"

But whether the laws will affect Second Life or not, there's no doubt that Australia has a terrible system of monitoring the age-appropriateness of games. Seriously, country of Australia, get it together

*In spite of my above flippant comment, I realize Second Life is more than just an animated cybersex chat-room. Misguided corporations occasionally use it for advertising, too.